Videoconferencing Experiences Uptake as It Facilitates Rich Engagements With Partners, Suppliers and Customers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - Apr 28, 2011) - The world videoconferencing infrastructure markets are poised to continue on a high-growth trajectory, as organizations are deploying videoconferencing not only as a means to cut travel cost, but also as a personal enabler for team collaboration within an enterprise. Conferencing technologies are quickly evolving from silo solutions to converged solutions, where data, voice, video, secure instant messaging, unified messaging and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) are merging.

When tightly integrated, the combined suite is called a unified communications (UC) solution. Enterprise video technologies that are attracting the most attention from the market are room-based videoconferencing, mobile video, video streaming and personal/team collaboration. Following in the footsteps of other conferencing markets, the videoconferencing infrastructure systems market is undergoing a transformation in product features, functionality, and end-user needs, as it evolves into a key element in implementing UC solutions.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.conferencing.frost.com), World Videoconferencing Infrastructure Markets, finds that the market earned revenues of over $440.6 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach $1,134.9 million in 2015.

If you are interested in more information on this study, please send an e-mail to Mireya Espinoza, Corporate Communications, at mireya.espinoza@frost.com, with your full name, company name, job title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

"Demand for videoconferencing infrastructure is getting closely tied to the growth in HD endpoints and telepresence," says Frost & Sullivan principal analyst Roopam Jain. "Today, a vast majority of videoconferencing deployments are happening over IP networks, creating seamless interconnectivity between H.323 and SIP-based networks as well as legacy ISDN networks."

Although the outlook for the market is bright, there are some challenges curtailing forward momentum. Buyer power in the market is somewhat diluted due to increased consolidation, proprietary systems, evolving interoperability between different vendor products, and lack of choice. However, end users are not short of options with regard to deployment models - be it on-premises, on-premises with outsourced managed services, co-location or a purely cloud-based hosted model.

As restrained spending becomes the new norm for enterprises, videoconferencing vendors will continue to face price pressures. In 2009, all key vendors reported offering price discounts to bolster sales. Bundling infrastructure and endpoints has also led to pricing discounts. Though vendors continue to diversify the feature sets of multipoint control units (MCUs), the videoconferencing infrastructure market is bound to witness sustained pricing pressure during the short and medium terms.

Videoconferencing and UC vendors are resorting to partnerships to make their products interoperable and targeting enterprises that are eyeing a combination of collaboration options. As video becomes more tightly integrated with other collaboration platforms, it will accelerate market growth and help reach critical mass faster. A major outcome of mergers and acquisitions will be broader interoperability in the industry.

"The market is seeing a fair amount of polarization subsequent to Cisco's acquisition of TANDBERG," says Jain. "Cisco itself sees the acquisition as critical to succeeding in the UC marketplace."

In the past, use of videoconferencing in the enterprise was limited to room-based systems. These systems require dedicated network connectivity and usage was limited to intra-company sessions due to lack of interoperability.

Vendors, however, are striving to address interoperability concerns. Cisco Systems, Inc., for instance, has released its proprietary telepresence protocol in the public domain and is moving forward to make this into an industry standard, paving way for an open architecture that takes interoperability beyond just telepresence to include any third-party videoconferencing system.

World Videoconferencing Infrastructure Markets is part of the Conferencing &Collaboration Growth Partnership Services program, which also includes research in the following markets: World Audioconferencing Bridge Markets, World Web Conferencing Hosted Services Markets, and World Videoconferencing Endpoints Markets. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

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